Rafael Nadal could follow Andy Murray in pulling out of the tennis singles on the eve of the competition.
The Spaniard is struggling to be fully fit for both the singles and doubles ahead of what could be a career farewell at Roland Garros, the scene of the majority of his 22 grand slam titles.
Murray confirmed his withdrawal from the singles on Thursday morning while Nadal is leaving it until the last minute to decide his course of action, with the potential for a mouth-watering second-round tie against Novak Djokovic.
The Spaniard’s coach Carlos Moya said: “I can’t say for sure that Nadal will play. We want to give him 48 hours to see how he is improving and how is recovering and, well, if everything goes normal and everything goes well then on Saturday he will jump on the court.”
Nadal, who will play in the doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, pulled out of a planned practice session on Thursday with Alexander Zverev.
And Moya added: “It was decided to give him more time to recover from the setback that occurred yesterday. Let’s see if he can be ready tomorrow. The responsible thing with an event of this magnitude is not to force it.”
Djokovic said he hoped Nadal pulled through his current issues to set up a 60th and final career meeting between the pair.
“It would be exciting to play against Nadal,” he said. “I feel more ready than I was before Wimbledon. I had many opportunities to win gold and now I have to start taking advantage of them.”
